Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

Source: Xinhua (news.cn) | Anchor: Wang Shuailong | Produced by the Audio-Video Department of Xinhua News Agency | 2026-06-21

[Composite photo: above, Suzhou Creek in the 1930s (provided by the Shanghai Municipal Archives); below, a view of Pudong's Lujiazui from the banks of Suzhou Creek on May 15, 2024 (photo by Xinhua reporter Liu Ying). Issued by Xinhua.]

拼版照片：上图为20世纪30年代的苏州河（上海市档案馆提供）；下图为2024年5月15日，从苏州河畔眄望浦东陆家嘴（新华社记者刘颖摄）。新华社发

On the banks of Shanghai's Suzhou Creek, the old workshops of the Fuxin Flour Mill stand quietly. This machine-powered flour mill, founded by the brothers Rong Zongjing and Rong Desheng, no longer produces anything today, but its architecture of tall windows and wide doors quietly tells of the past. Not far away, the former site of the Xinhe Cotton Mill has been transformed into the M50 Creative Park, dotted with cafés, galleries, and the like.

上海苏州河畔，福新面粉厂的旧厂房静静矗立。这座由荣宗敬、荣德生兄弟创办的机器面粉厂，如今已不再生产，但高窗阔门的建筑风貌静静诉说着往昔。不远处，信和纱厂旧址变身为M50创意园，咖啡馆与画廊等错落分布。

These industrial heritage sites once witnessed a profound social transformation. In the course of the socialist transformation of the 1950s, many national industrial and commercial enterprises set out on the road of joint state-private ownership.

这些工业遗产曾见证一段深刻的社会变革。上世纪50年代社会主义改造的进程中，许多民族工商企业，走上了公私合营的道路。

[On January 15, 1956, more than 200,000 people from all walks of life in Beijing held a celebratory rally in Tiananmen Square marking the victory of socialist transformation. Issued by Xinhua.]

1956年1月15日，北京各界20多万人在天安门广场举行庆祝社会主义改造胜利联欢大会。新华社发

Rewind to early 1956, when a fervent and festive atmosphere filled the land of China. On January 15, more than 200,000 people from all walks of life in Beijing held a celebratory rally in Tiananmen Square marking the victory of socialist transformation, attended by Mao Zedong and other central leaders. Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen solemnly declared: our capital has already entered a socialist society. Cities such as Shanghai and Chongqing then held their own gatherings and parades to celebrate this historic moment. The scenes of lanterns and decorations and clamoring gongs and drums bore witness to the profound transformation taking place in Chinese society.

时间回到1956年初，中国大地上洋溢着热烈而喜庆的气氛。1月15日，北京各界20多万人在天安门广场举行庆祝社会主义改造胜利联欢大会，毛泽东等中央领导同志出席。北京市市长彭真庄严宣布：我们的首都已经进入了社会主义社会。随后，上海、重庆等城市也举行集会和游行，欢庆这一历史性时刻。张灯结彩、锣鼓喧天的场面，见证了中国社会发生的深刻变革。

By the end of 1952, land reform was basically complete and the task of restoring the national economy had been smoothly accomplished. The Party Central Committee decided to implement, from 1953 onward, China's First Five-Year Plan for the development of the national economy. At the same time, some new contradictions had emerged and accumulated in social life, putting the task of carrying out a systematic socialist transformation of the national economy on the agenda.

1952年底，土地改革基本完成，恢复国民经济的任务顺利实现。党中央决定从1953年起执行我国发展国民经济的第一个五年计划。与此同时，社会生活中也出现和积累了一些新的矛盾，把对国民经济实行系统的社会主义改造的任务提到日程上来。

Against this backdrop, the Party Central Committee put forward the Party's General Line for the Transition Period: from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation was a transition period. The Party's general line and general task for this transition period was, over a fairly long period, to gradually realize the country's socialist industrialization and to gradually accomplish the state's socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce.

在这一背景下，党中央提出了党在过渡时期的总路线：从中华人民共和国成立，到社会主义改造基本完成，这是一个过渡时期。党在这个过渡时期的总路线和总任务，是要在一个相当长的时期内，逐步实现国家的社会主义工业化，并逐步实现国家对农业、对手工业和对资本主义工商业的社会主义改造。

This general line was known as "one industrialization and three transformations" or "one body, two wings": the main body was socialist industrialization, and the two wings were the socialist transformation of agriculture and handicrafts and the socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce.

这条总路线被称为“一化三改”或“一体两翼”，主体是社会主义工业化，两翼是对农业、手工业的社会主义改造和对资本主义工商业的社会主义改造。

Under the guidance of the general line, socialist transformation unfolded across the board. Agriculture generally passed through several stages — mutual-aid teams, elementary agricultural producers' cooperatives, and advanced agricultural producers' cooperatives; handicrafts generally passed through several stages — production cooperative groups, handicraft supply-and-marketing cooperatives, and handicraft producers' cooperatives; and capitalist industry and commerce broadly went through a process of development from lower forms of state capitalism (unified purchase and marketing, processing and ordering) to higher forms of state capitalism (joint state-private ownership).